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      Familiarize Yourself with Breakers & Shut-Offs

      If you’re woken in the middle of the night to mayhem; grab a flashlight (always keep one at your bedside) to make a home inspection. If you have natural gas lines running into your home, never flip on a light switch or use a candle or a lighter to inspect your home. This can be the vector to ignite built-up gas fumes.

      Here’s an example: in the 80’s, two men from the gas company were sent to inspect a gas leak in a derelict building. Most of the bare light bulbs in the hallway of the building had been broken out; so one of the men flicked his Bic lighter. The result made him a candidate for the Darwin Awards.

      Natural gas has an odorant added to it so it is easily detected. Natural gas must have the right concentration of fumes for it to be life threatening, but don’t risk it! If you detect a gas leak, get everyone outdoors, pronto, and keep the door open on the way out to let the dangerous fumes escape.

      If you have propane appliances or a heating system, it is important to understand that unlike natural gas, propane is heavier than air, and does not dissipate into the air as readily as does natural gas. The same rules apply for a propane leak as they do with natural gas—get everyone outdoors, leaving the door open. Propane will settle to the lower levels of your home such as the floor, a basement, or crawl space and it will take longer to clear out of living spaces.

      Familiarize yourself with the location of your natural gas or propane shut-off, and in the event of a leak, turn it off immediately. Propane will have a service valve on the tank, whereas natural gas shut-off valves are located on the meter, which is typically installed outside against the foundation of the house, but this can vary. In the event of a leak, turn the valve to the off position.

      Some emergencies require turning off the power to your home at the electrical panel. Circuit breakers are typically behind an easily identifiable panel. Every member of the family old enough to be of help in a crisis should be taught about utility shut-offs to your home.

      Water main shut-offs aren’t always as easy to find, especially in older homes where they can be buried in an obscure corner of a basement or crawlspace. I speak from experience. Having just finished renovations on a Victorian home, I was showing off the years of hard work to my brother and sister-in-law. Suddenly the wall in the entryway began to spout water (reminding me about the consequences of pride). It looked as if someone had turned on a showerhead at full force as water gushed down the stairway and onto the foyer. My brother ran to the netherworlds of the 1890-era basement to look for the water shut-off with the spiders and the other creepy-crawlies, and my sister-in-law and I began frantically sweeping the worst of the flood out the front door and onto the frozen veranda.

      Ten minutes later, the torrent had only grown stronger as it blew out the newly installed drywall and I ran for the phone to call the fire department—hey, plumbers can take hours to reach—when we heard a muffled voice calling triumphantly from below; “Found it!”

      It turned out the water shut-off was hidden in a crawlspace, tucked away from the finished basement where a century’s worth of old doors and trim lay. My advice is to take the time to find out where your water shut-off is located now, before an emergency, so you won’t be floundering in the dark wondering if you’ll ever find it.